Staff photo By Vinny Tennis
Ingrid Merkner colors a placemat at the West Chester Friends School in West Chester. The placemat will be used when the school holds its Empty Bowl Dinner on Jan. 18 to benefit the West Chester Food Cupboard.

Say the word “hunger” in Chester County and rarely will people first consider their community. Despite national and global efforts to fight the problem, it remains true that some tables, plates and bowls in the county, one of the wealthiest counties in the Commonwealth, remain empty.

In order to bring awareness to the issue, the West Chester Friends School, located on High Street in West Chester, will be holding its first Empty Bowl dinner on Friday Jan. 18, the school’s annual day of service.

“When we do service we like it to be something the children can engage in where they really have a sense of what they’re doing makes a difference to somebody else,” said Matthew Bradley, head of school. “It’s important to donate money and send it to other parts of the world, but for children, if they can have a sense of what they’re doing makes a difference right here and right now that to us is a very important component of service.”

Empty Bowls is an international grassroots effort to educate communities and fight hunger created by the Imagine Render Group. According to the organization, the idea of the event is to gather potters, craftspeople, educators and community members and create bowls and gather for a basic meal where guests are asked for a donation.

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On Friday, dinner guests will share in a simple meal of soup and bread. After, guests are asked to keep a bowl as a reminder of the empty bowls in their community and around the world.

“That’s part of the beauty of it is I think the simplicity of the meal,” Bradley said.

The dinner will be held at Milestone events from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Bradley said a parent of one of the school’s students suggested the idea.

“It’s a good fit for us because service is a big part of what we do here at West Chester Friends School,” Bradley said.

Throughout the years, students at the Friends School have held fundraisers such as bake sales, disaster relief efforts to aid those in the community.

All of the school’s 106 students ranging from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade will spend time on Friday preparing for the dinner. Students will decorate bowls; make placemats and table runners while older students will design information table tents.

Tickets to the dinner are $10 per person or $20 for families of two or more. All proceeds from the event will benefit the West Chester Food Cupboard.

Each month, the food cupboard, serves more than 600 households from the 19380 and 19382 zip codes. The organization is staffed entirely by about 100 volunteers.

With an increased volume and decreased food supply, Sam Wolfgong, lead volunteer at the cupboard, said events like this not only help the organization keep the shelves stocked but raise awareness to the issue of hunger in the county.

Wolfgong said he is consistently surprised at how many people are unaware there is a food cupboard in West Chester.

“People in West Chester are in need,” Wolfgong said.

Wolfgong said they are blessed to have a community that consistently donates to the food cupboard’s effort.

“Somehow it’s kind of amazing around here,” He said. “You think, ‘where are we going to get something’ and then someone walks through the door. We feel blessed. We haven’t had to turn anyone away without food.”

Founded in 1836, the West Chester Friends School is the oldest continuously operating elementary school within the borough. Bradley said events like the Empty Bowl dinner help teach the values the school supports.

“It’s important to our school because we are a Friends school, and one of the important values that we espouse, that we help the children make a part of their own life, is valuing every individual, valuing everyone around us and if we value everyone then we need to reach out and help them as well,” Bradley said.

He added this value is what helped them choose the food cupboard as the beneficiary to teach the students and give them a look at the issue close to home.

“There are so many needs here let’s keep it as local as we can,” Bradley said.

To aid the supper, local organizations have donated their time and items.

About the Author

Jeremy Gerrard is the Daily Local News' reporter covering the West Chester area and local school district. Jeremy is a Chester County native and a graduate of Auburn University. Reach the author at jgerrard@dailylocal.com
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